Power and control in international retail franchising

Alexander, Nicholas, Doherty, Anne Marie, 'Power and control in international retail franchising', European Journal of Marketing (2006) 40(11-12) pp.1292-1316 RAE2008

The Retail Market for Bednets in Kenya: How Well Is It Working?

Background Achieving the goals set by Roll Back Malaria and the Government of Kenya for use of insecticide treated bednets (ITNs) will require that the private retail market for nets and insecticide treatments grow substantially. This paper applies some basic concepts of market structure and pricing to a set of recently-collected retail price data from Kenya in order to answer the question, “How well are Kenyan retail markets for ITNs working?” Methods Data on the availability and prices of ITNs at a wide range of retail outlets throughout Kenya were collected in January 2002, and vendors and manufacturers were interviewed regarding market structure. Findings Untreated nets are manufactured in Kenya by a number of companies and are widely available in large and medium-sized towns. Availability in smaller villages is limited. There is relatively little geographic price variation, and nets can be found at competitive prices in towns and cities. Marketing margins on prices appear to be within normal ranges. No finished nets are imported. Few pre-treated nets or net+treatment combinations are available, with the exception of the subsidized Supanet/Power Tab combination marketed by a donor-funded social marketing project. Conclusions Retail markets for untreated nets in Kenya are well established and appear to be competitive. Markets for treated nets and insecticide treatment kits are not well established. The role of subsidized ITN marketing projects should be monitored to ensure that these projects support, rather than hinder, the development of retail markets.

Store Working Memory Networks for Storage and Recall of Arbitrary Temporal Sequences

Neural network models of working memory, called Sustained Temporal Order REcurrent (STORE) models, are described. They encode the invariant temporal order of sequential events in short term memory (STM) in a way that mimics cognitive data about working memory, including primacy, recency, and bowed order and error gradients. As new items are presented, the pattern of previously stored items is invariant in the sense that, relative activations remain constant through time. This invariant temporal order code enables all possible groupings of sequential events to be stably learned and remembered in real time, even as new events perturb the system. Such a competence is needed to design self-organizing temporal recognition and planning systems in which any subsequence of events may need to be categorized in order to to control and predict future behavior or external events. STORE models show how arbitrary event sequences may be invariantly stored, including repeated events. A preprocessor interacts with the working memory to represent event repeats in spatially separate locations. It is shown why at least two processing levels are needed to invariantly store events presented with variable durations and interstimulus intervals. It is also shown how network parameters control the type and shape of primacy, recency, or bowed temporal order gradients that will be stored.

Competing manufacturers in a retail supply chain: On contractual form and coordination

It is common for a retailer to sell products from competing manufacturers. How then should the firms manage their contract negotiations? The supply chain coordination literature focuses either on a single manufacturer selling to a single retailer or one manufacturer selling to many (possibly competing) retailers. We find that some key conclusions from those market structures do not apply in our setting, where multiple manufacturers sell through a single retailer. We allow the manufacturers to compete for the retailer's business using one of three types of contracts: a wholesale-price contract, a quantity-discount contract, or a two-part tariff. It is well known that the latter two, more sophisticated contracts enable the manufacturer to coordinate the supply chain, thereby maximizing the profits available to the firms. More importantly, they allow the manufacturer to extract rents from the retailer, in theory allowing the manufacturer to leave the retailer with only her reservation profit. However, we show that in our market structure these two sophisticated contracts force the manufacturers to compete more aggressively relative to when they only offer wholesale-price contracts, and this may leave them worse off and the retailer substantially better off. In other words, although in a serial supply chain a retailer may have just cause to fear quantity discounts and two-part tariffs, a retailer may actually prefer those contracts when offered by competing manufacturers. We conclude that the properties a contractual form exhibits in a one-manufacturer supply chain may not carry over to the realistic setting in which multiple manufacturers must compete to sell their goods through the same retailer. © 2010 INFORMS.

Implementation of customer relationship management and inventory control software: a multiple case study of small retailers

Gemstone Team Small Business Solutions

Ca2+- and volume-sensitive chloride currents are differentially regulated by agonists and store-operated Ca2+ entry.

Using patch-clamp and calcium imaging techniques, we characterized the effects of ATP and histamine on human keratinocytes. In the HaCaT cell line, both receptor agonists induced a transient elevation of [Ca2+]i in a Ca2+-free medium followed by a secondary [Ca2+]i rise upon Ca2+ readmission due to store-operated calcium entry (SOCE). In voltage-clamped cells, agonists activated two kinetically distinct currents, which showed differing voltage dependences and were identified as Ca2+-activated (ICl(Ca)) and volume-regulated (ICl, swell) chloride currents. NPPB and DIDS more efficiently inhibited ICl(Ca) and ICl, swell, respectively. Cell swelling caused by hypotonic solution invariably activated ICl, swell while regulatory volume decrease occurred in intact cells, as was found in flow cytometry experiments. The PLC inhibitor U-73122 blocked both agonist- and cell swelling–induced ICl, swell, while its inactive analogue U-73343 had no effect. ICl(Ca) could be activated by cytoplasmic calcium increase due to thapsigargin (TG)-induced SOCE as well as by buffering [Ca2+]i in the pipette solution at 500 nM. In contrast, ICl, swell could be directly activated by 1-oleoyl-2-acetyl-sn-glycerol (OAG), a cell-permeable DAG analogue, but neither by InsP3 infusion nor by the cytoplasmic calcium increase. PKC also had no role in its regulation. Agonists, OAG, and cell swelling induced ICl, swell in a nonadditive manner, suggesting their convergence on a common pathway. ICl, swell and ICl(Ca) showed only a limited overlap (i.e., simultaneous activation), although various maneuvers were able to induce these currents sequentially in the same cell. TG-induced SOCE strongly potentiated ICl(Ca), but abolished ICl, swell, thereby providing a clue for this paradox. Thus, we have established for the first time using a keratinocyte model that ICl, swell can be physiologically activated under isotonic conditions by receptors coupled to the phosphoinositide pathway. These results also suggest a novel function for SOCE, which can operate as a "selection" switch between closely localized channels.

Inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate receptors modulate Ca2+ sparks and Ca2+ store content in vas deferens myocytes.

Spontaneous Ca2+ sparks were observed in fluo 4-loaded myocytes from guinea pig vas deferens with line-scan confocal imaging. They were abolished by ryanodine (100 microM), but the inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate (IP3) receptor (IP3R) blockers 2-aminoethoxydiphenyl borate (2-APB; 100 microM) and intracellular heparin (5 mg/ml) increased spark frequency, rise time, duration, and spread. Very prolonged Ca2+ release events were also observed in approximately 20% of cells treated with IP3R blockers but not under control conditions. 2-APB and heparin abolished norepinephrine (10 microM; 0 Ca2+)-evoked Ca2+ transients but increased caffeine (10 mM; 0 Ca2+) transients in fura 2-loaded myocytes. Transients evoked by ionomycin (25 microM; 0 Ca2+) were also enhanced by 2-APB. Ca2+ sparks and transients evoked by norepinephrine and caffeine were abolished by thimerosal (100 microM), which sensitizes the IP3R to IP3. In cells voltage clamped at -40 mV, spontaneous transient outward currents (STOCs) were increased in frequency, amplitude, and duration in the presence of 2-APB. These data are consistent with a model in which the Ca2+ store content in smooth muscle is limited by tonic release of Ca2+ via an IP3-dependent pathway. Blockade of IP3Rs elevates sarcoplasmic reticulum store content, promoting Ca2+ sparks and STOC activity.

Diabetes-induced activation of protein kinase C inhibits store-operated Ca2+ uptake in rat retinal microvascular smooth muscle.

AIMS/HYPOTHESIS: To assess the effects of diabetes-induced activation of protein kinase C (PKC) on voltage-dependent and voltage-independent Ca2+ influx pathways in retinal microvascular smooth muscle cells. METHODS: Cytosolic Ca2+ was estimated in freshly isolated rat retinal arterioles from streptozotocin-induced diabetic and non-diabetic rats using fura-2 microfluorimetry. Voltage-dependent Ca2+ influx was tested by measuring rises in [Ca2+]i with KCl (100 mmol/l) and store-operated Ca2+ influx was assessed by depleting [Ca2+]i stores with Ca2+ free medium containing 5 micromol/l cyclopiazonic acid over 10 min and subsequently measuring the rate of rise in Ca2+ on adding 2 mmol/l or 10 mmol/l Ca2+ solution. RESULTS: Ca2+ entry through voltage-dependent L-type Ca2+ channels was unaffected by diabetes. In contrast, store-operated Ca2+ influx was attenuated. In microvessels from non-diabetic rats 20 mmol/l D-mannitol had no effect on store-operated Ca2+ influx. Diabetic rats injected daily with insulin had store-operated Ca2+ influx rates similar to non-diabetic control rats. The reduced Ca2+ entry in diabetic microvessels was reversed by 2-h exposure to 100 nmol/l staurosporine, a non-specific PKC antagonist and was mimicked in microvessels from non-diabetic rats by 10-min exposure to the PKC activator phorbol myristate acetate (100 nmol/l). The specific PKCbeta antagonist LY379196 (100 nmol/l) also reversed the poor Ca2+ influx although its action was less efficacious than staurosporine. CONCLUSION/INTERPRETATION: These results show that store-operated Ca2+ influx is inhibited in retinal arterioles from rats having sustained increased blood glucose and that PKCbeta seems to play a role in mediating this effect.

Prevalence of Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis in Swiss raw milk cheeses collected at the retail level.

A total of 143 raw milk cheese samples (soft cheese, n = 9; semihard cheese, n = 133; hard cheese, n = 1), collected at the retail level throughout Switzerland, were tested for Mycobacterium avium ssp. paratuberculosis (MAP) by immunomagnetic capture plus culture on 7H10-PANTA medium and in supplemented BAC-TEC 12B medium, as well as by an F57-based real-time PCR system. Furthermore, pH and water activity values were determined for each sample. Although no viable MAP cells could be cultured, 4.2% of the raw milk cheese samples tested positive with the F57-based real-time PCR system, providing evidence for the presence of MAP in the raw material. As long as the link between MAP and Crohn’s disease in humans remains unclear, measures designed to minimize public exposure should also include a focus on milk products.

Do minimum wages raise employment? Evidence from the US retail-trade sector

This paper examines the impact of minimum wages on earnings and employment in selected branches of the retail-trade sector, 1990-2005, using county-level data on employment and a panel regression framework that allows for county-specific trends in sectoral outcomes. We focus on specific subsectors within retail trade that are identified as particularly low-wage. We find little evidence of disemployment effects once we allow for geographic-specific trends. Indeed, in many sectors the evidence points to modest (but robust) positive employment effects. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Pharmacological profiling of store-operated Ca(2+) entry in retinal arteriolar smooth muscle

Objective: Pharmacological profiling of store-operated Ca(2+) entry (SOCE) and molecular profiling of ORAI and TRPC expression in arterioles. 
Methods: Fura-2 based microfluorimetry was used to assess CPA-induced SOCE in rat retinal arteriolar myocytes. Arteriolar ORAI and TRP transcript expression were screened using RT-PCR. 
Results: SKF96365 and LOE908 blocked SOCE (IC(50) s of 1.2µM and 1.4µM, respectively). Gd(3+) and La(3+) potently inhibited SOCE (IC(50) s of 21nM and 42nM, respectively), but Ni(2+) showed lower potency (IC(50) = 11.6µM). 2-aminoethyldiphenyl borate (2APB) inhibited SOCE (IC(50) = 3.7µM) but enhanced basal influx (>100µM). Verapamil and nifedipine had no effect at concentrations that inhibit L-type Ca(2+) channels, but diltiazem inhibited SOCE by approximately 40% (=0.1µM). RT-PCR demonstrated transcript expression for ORAI 1, 2 and 3, and TRPC1, 3, 4 and 7. Transcripts for TRPV1 and 2, which are activated by 2APB, were also expressed. 
Conclusion: The pharmacological profile of SOCE in retinal arteriolar smooth muscle appears unique when compared to other vascular tissues. This suggests that the molecular mechanisms underlying SOCE can differ, even in closely related tissues. Taken together, the pharmacological and molecular data are most consistent with involvement of TRPC1 in SOCE, although involvement of ORAI or other TRPC channels cannot be excluded. © 2012 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.